Prosecutors suggest four months for Barber in Capitol charges
Trending
PARKERSBURG -- Federal prosecutors are recommending a four-month sentence for former Parkersburg City Councilman Eric Barber, according to a memorandum that also expands on where he went and what he did at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
Barber, 43, pleaded guilty in December to misdemeanor charges of parading, demonstrating or picketing in a Capitol building and theft. He was scheduled to be sentenced Thursday in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, but the hearing was continued in late March until June 1.
A sentencing memorandum filed Wednesday by Assistant U.S. Attorney Brenda J. Johnson recommends Barber be sentenced to 90 days on the first count and 30 days on the second, to be served consecutively, along with 60 hours of community service, three years probation and $552.95 in restitution.
Contacted Thursday, Barber said he had not seen the memo. While he said he expected some jail time, he was surprised by the amount proposed.
"That just seems unfair and unreasonable," he said. "The fact that this was a Donald Trump event, so to speak, makes a lot of people want to punish those involved."
When both probation and incarceration were mentioned, Barber referred to a March 30 article on the website for the Law & Crime network in which U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper, who is presiding over his case, declined to pronounce sentences with both, saying it's unclear whether the law allows for such "split sentences" in so-called petty offenses.
Barber said he went to the Jan. 6, 2021, "Stop the Steal" rally in Washington, D.C., at the request of then-President Trump, who spoke to the crowd and repeated unsubstantiated claims the outcome of the 2020 election had been altered by fraud. Barber walked with the crowd to the Capitol, where protesters forced their way into the building.
In an interview with The Parkersburg News and Sentinel that day, Barber said he looked inside but did not enter the building. But after his arrest in March 2021, a criminal complaint filed by the FBI said closed-circuit footage and images and video shared online showed Barber inside the building.
The sentencing memo goes into greater detail, saying Barber entered by climbing through a broken window, with a still image included showing a man in the same type of green, military-style helmet Barber wore doing just that.
"I went through the window," the memo quotes Barber from an interview with the FBI. "There was an officer just standing right there, just staring at me."
The memo also said Barber was found walking in the House Speaker's suite of offices, escorted out by police and returned minutes later.
The theft charge comes from Barber taking a portable charging device from a C-SPAN media station. The charger and the helmet were found in his home when it was searched in March 2021.
Regarding his presence in the Speaker's offices, Barber said Thursday he didn't realize where he was.
The memo says that when interviewed by the FBI, Barber said he donned the helmet because he intended to hit someone affiliated with the Antifa movement.
"I was going to be super hard and go punch a Antifa terrorist in the face," the memo quotes Barber as saying in the interview. "And I end up being the terrorist. Plot twist, huh?"
Asked about that statement Thursday, Barber said he's maintained from the start that the actions of those in the Capitol were wrong, referring to his News and Sentinel interview.
"I said it was wrong and we were barely any better than Antifa," he said. "After condemning liberal riots for the last two years, we were held to a higher standard and shouldn't have engaged in riotous behavior."
Barber said Thursday he had been looking to "settle some scores" with Antifa and Black Lives Matter protesters for individuals' statements and actions toward him in West Virginia. But "the Capitol building was never a target," he said.
The memo says Barber's denial of being in the building in interviews and his previous criminal history were factors in the prosecution's recommendations.
No response or sentencing memorandum had been filed by the defense as of Thursday afternoon.
Evan Bevins can be reached at ebevins@newsandsentinel.com.